
Class. 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnv 



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MEMBER UtbtiKVCb irlE 
NAME OF THE "FRIEND 
OF ALL THE WORLD" 



WHAT HAS THE CHURCH 
MEANTTOME? IT HAS 
MEANT THE AGENCY 
THROUGH WHICH I RE- 
CEIVED SUCH SPIRIT- 
UAL SIGHT AS I HAVE • IT 
HAS MEANT THE BODY 
THROUGH WHICH HAS 
COME TO ME STRENGTH 
IN WEAKNESS MANY 
TIMES, COMFORT IN TRIAL, 
HELP IN TIME OF NEED 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

MEANS TO ME 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

MEANS TO ME 

A FRANK CONFESSION AND A 
FRIENDLY ESTIMATE BY AN INSIDER 

BY 

WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.D. (Oxon.) 

Superintendent Labrador Medical Mission 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



a 



'/^ii 



$ 



&1 



€ 



Copyright, 1911 
By Wilfred T. Grentell 



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THE • PLIMPTON • PRESS 

[ W D* O ] 
NORWOOD • MASS • U • S • A 



)CI.A300001 



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of 



WHAT THE CHURCH 
MEANS TO ME 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

MEANS TO ME 

• 

1 HE Church to me means all who, 
consciously or unconsciously, are for- 
warding God's kingdom on earth. In 
the broad definition of the Master it 
means ''all those who are not against 
us." The way in which men associate 
for worship, or in which they consider 
it most remunerative to invest their 
efforts to forward the kingdom, gives 
them no right to arrogate to themselves 
the title of God's Church. Any body 
of men saying, "We are the Church," 
seems to me ridiculous. 

If they try to exclude at the same 
time those who approach their Maker, 
or who are endeavoring to do faithfully 
the things Christ would approve, only 
in some other way, then they become 
offensive also. I am firmly convinced 
the world is coming to this view, and I 
[7] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

am glad it is already beginning to ex- 
press it. Through ''the Church" the 
salvation of the world must come. I 
have no use whatever for the critic 
whose heart is set on her destruction 
or who muckrakes it for a revenue. By 
this I mean the Church Invisible, known 
only to God's Holy Spirit. 

Standards which Christ would 
Condemn 

The "'offense'' of the visible churches 
that tells most against them today in 
the minds of educated men is not world- 
liness or unfaithfulness; it is their inabil- 
ity to shake oflP their untenable position 
as judges of others. The "Church" in 
Jesus' day judged him unfit to live. 
Upon Luther, Wesley, and many of the 
best servants of the human race the 
churches to which they belonged passed 
similar sentences. Even the sugges- 
tion of the "holding-up-of -skirts," of 
this "I-am-holier-than-thou" attitude, 
because I think differently, is repel- 
lent and has not yet met the fate that 
certainly awaits it, before there can be 
[8] 



MEANS TO ME 

a reign of universal peace. Science 
has taught us that doubt, quite as much 
as faith, leads to the apprehension of 
truth. There are countless men, skilled 
in the exact sciences and in scholarship, 
possessed of wealth and rank, who find 
it impossible to define their position in 
words, yet whose humility and charity 
make us love them, whose deeds are 
just such as those which have come down 
the ages as Jesus' own selection for the 
most convincing evidence of his Sonship 
of God. We all know today men of 
inferior attainments and lives who not 
only know themselves to be infallible, 
but haven't the grace to leave even 
such men alone, and who have inter- 
preted their call to the ''ministry" as 
simply a mandate to set every one else 
intellectually right. I know that that 
which is hidden from the wise can be 
revealed to babes, and that our tal- 
ents — namely, social position, wealth, 
and brains — merely enlarge in God's 
sight our capacity for service, and there- 
fore our responsibility. But I know also 
that the prizes of our high calling can 
be purchased only by our fidelity in 
[9] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

following, and that involves other than 
intellectual processes. 

The Case of the Working Man 

As for the working man, to my mind 
if he doesn't join a visible church today 
it is simply because he doesn't see any 
good in it. The teachings of the 
Church's Master still appeal to him, 
but the churches to him don't stand 
for them. He has seen the visible 
churches, organized to perpetuate 
Christ's teaching, striving for centuries 
only after privilege, patronage, and 
political power. Was ever such a topsy- 
turvyism? Instead of being a bridge 
over the great gulf between wealth and 
povei'ty, the Church still savors to him 
too much of the "be content where you 
are" sentiment. To him she is insin- 
cere, and consequently his pew is empty. 
He doesn't want an insurance agency 
only for the next world; he wants a 
kingdom of righteousness, joy, and 
peace, first in this world, where Christ 
intended it to be, as well as in the next. 
Church authority can no longer com- 
pel his interest; she cannot compete as 
[10] 



MEANS TO ME 

a popular entertainer; only the proof 
of her unselfish love in matters of 
everyday life can save her from becom- 
ing a useless hulk, stranded on the beach 
of time. Rainsford, Stelzle, and others 
have shown that the downtown churches 
need not close if the message is given in 
Christ's own undeniable way which 
the people can't misunderstand. 

Though I do see the various churches 
just beginning to rouse themselves — 
no longer wholly absorbed in making 
every one say '^ shibboleth" with an 
"h," still just as in politics the party 
machine becomes God, crushing truth 
and righteousness before it, so the church 
machine is only too often a Jugger- 
naut's car, destroying all faith in God 
and man. The machine has usurped 
the pedestal of Christ, as in Rome and 
Russia, and nearer home, if Judge 
Lindsey of Denver is to be believed. 
For there the very clergy of 145 out of 
150 churches refused to come out boldly 
against dives and brothels that were 
defiling the girls and boys of the city 
of Denver, because they dared not 
endanger the interests of their machine. 

[11] 



WHx\T THE CHURCH 

Vox popiili was right. They were 
presumably afraid to take up the cross, 
which real fighting the devil involves 
as much today as it did in Judea cen- 
turies ago. Many, outside all churches, 
support hospitals, orphanages, soup 
kitchens, relief funds, and so forth. 
Big corporations and even heathen 
armies on the war path support 
Y. M. C. A. work, because that is a 
demonstratively valuable working fac- 
tor. The church which is afraid of 
offending rich members cannot have a 
faith in God which is worth anything. 

Thank God for all the illustrations 
of her direct watchful vitality that she 
does show. As, for instance, when the 
Christian Endeavorers fought the ques- 
tion of prize-fight mo\4ng-picture shows 
and won out — or when a Parkhurst 
fought bravely for a clean pohce force. 
Even if the world today does not vex 
itself so much as formerly about pre- 
destination, original sin, the ''actual 
presence," or even the correct mental 
attitude to insure heaven hereafter, the 
churches may surely count it as a prod- 
uct of their work that the people do 
[12] 



MEANS TO ME 

trust God more simply for the past and 
future, and are more in earnest about 
securing justice for the downtrodden 
and the square deal in the present. 
In this they need as much as ever the 
Church's leading. 

What IVLikes the Church 
Attractive 

That which attracts to a church 
today is not higher criticism, elaborate 
ritual, hair-splitting creeds, but fear- 
less fighting for public health, for good 
government, for righteous labor condi- 
tions, for clean courts of justice. It 
was the leader of a darky revival who, 
when asked why he didn't sometimes 
read the Old Testament, replied: ''No, 
sah. Dem commandments just upset 
de whol' re\H[val." There is no need 
that taking up politics and social 
questions should exclude the preaching 
of the Christ. Men will follow today 
a Kingsley and a Maurice, a Lincoln, 
a Beecher, a Brooks, or a Worcester as 
they will a Heney, a Hughes, or a Folk 
or any man in whom they see plainly 
[131 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

reflected the unselfish love of the 
Christ. 

Who cares, as a matter of fact, which 
way these men said their prayers? 
They may have been Catholic or Prot- 
estant, or in honest doubt, but we love 
them and will follow them. To us they 
stand for real love to man, and so real 
faith in God; for true pluck and will- 
ingness to take up their cross. Oh, if 
every member of the churches and 
every wearer of "the cloth'' realized 
the privilege of standing by every up- 
lifting effort, and was always so valiant 
for truth as to make a Rueff or any 
agent of the devil occasionally think 
it worth while to take the risk of trying 
to kill them — as in the case of this same 
Lincoln, of Heney, of Lindsey, and of 
the Master — the world would recognize 
then that the Church was worth while, 
and there would be no discussing 
whether it was going to die out or not. 
A little physical shooting wouldn't hurt 
the Church. The world wants a Church 
Militant, not a backboneless intellectual- 
ism. Only the ''great Church victori- 
ous" can be the "Church at rest." 
[14] 



MEANS TO ME 

Nowhere is this fact more unanswer- 
ably demonstrated than in the mission- 
ary field. Faithlessness in this respect 
and tearfulness of expenditure, both 
of men and money in missionary 
work, have always stood in any church 
for choked channels of spiritual power, 
and subsequently spelled ansen\ia, 
atrophy, and death. Constant metabo- 
lism is as essential for spiritual life 
as physical. A church must die that 
doesn't use up and give out energy as 
surely as a physical body. The period 
of latent physical life is not long. God 
in his mercy has seemed to prolong 
latent spiritual life almost unduly in 
the case of some churches. Those who 
love the Church are breathing a little 
more freely because of the Laymen's 
Missionary Movement. 

Lack of Clearness 

To me personally it is hard to know 
exactly what the Church has meant; 
it is hard to ''know one's self." The 
attitude of practically all men's minds 
is to excuse their own shortcomings by 
attributing the cause elsewhere. Thus 
[15] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

Paddy blames the Government for the 
hole in his trousers, just as he does for 
the typhoid resulting from the dump 
heap. in front of his own door. When I 
first essayed to write on this subject, I 
several times tore up the manuscript, 
feeling that I had written that which 
was calculated to rend her at whose 
breast my own spirit had first found 
life-giving sustenance and afterwards 
wisdom, encouragement, and aid. 

Yet history seems plainly to show that 
there have been times when the world 
would have been more Christian if the 
organizations to which men often limit 
the name of church had ceased to exist. 
I presume the experience we have all 
had with organizations calling them- 
selves "the Church" has driven us, at 
times at least, to the same conclusions 
in our own day about those partic- 
ular branches. But this bears no refer- 
ence to the body of men who love 
Christ better than their own lives. 
They are really the Church, and mean 
everything to me, to the world outside, 
and to all aspirants to the dignity of 
the name of Christian. 
[16] 



MEANS TO ME 

Organizations Essential 

The visible Church stands to me above 
all else as appointed of God for all that 
organization means in the attainment 
of any other object. Atmospheric re- 
ligion is desirable, but to progress, to 
permanence, organization is essential. 
Moreover, being conscious of the idio- 
syncrasy of the human mind, I have 
every use for the various communions 
if no man is to be excluded. 

But I look on one and all simply as 
a means to an end, and as agencies, not 
entities. Theoretically there is no reason 
why they should not love one another. 
Alas! they haven't always done so. A 
large membership of ineffective persons 
may be only an incubus. Like sailors 
on my vessel, if they are incompetent 
they are a hindrance, and in every way 
expensive and undesirable. I never 
care to emphasize the large number 
that the crew of my hospital ship con- 
sists of. As long as I can do the work 
I take pride in the small number I 
can handle it with. It is far better 
for the individuals themselves to have 
[17] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

more responsibility and see clearly the 
result of their own handiwork. They 
feel also, then, that it is more important 
to be ready at all calls, and when at 
it they will work far more keenly. 
History proves that when Constantine 
filled the Eastern Church with nominal 
Christians he led directly to its down- 
fall. Yet one of the most diflBcult 
things I have had to learn is that relig- 
ious people find it impossible to be- 
lieve that others do not care one iota 
whether a man is labeled a Methodist 
or an Episcopalian. I certainly do not, 
and I do not believe God does. 

Christ Counts, not Creeds 

I sat in a small, mean little cabin on 
our coast some time ago while a trained 
nurse from New York washed a sick 
baby and taught the mother how to 
save the poor little mite's life. It was 
that gentlewoman's ministry for Jesus 
Christ. For the privilege she was pay- 
ing her own expenses and receiving no 
salary. If ever I realized the Master 
standing by in my life it was then and 
there in the semi-darkness of that hut. 
[181 



MEANS TO ME 

That kind of ministry never fails to grip 
the laboring man. An hour later, as 
I spoke to a preacher about this angel 
of mercy, he said, ''Yes, but it is a 
pity she is a Roman Catholic." Yes, 
it is hard, this faith in Jesus Christ. 
It will bring her no praise of men. 
Yet it was such sermons as this nurse's 
that Jesus thought it worth while wast- 
ing his time on, when the world lacked 
theology far more than it does today. 
Those sermons of his in their modest 
settings have been the most brilliant 
of the world's possessions ever since. 
I think the Church grades her preachers 
wrongly. There is no failure of Christ's 
aims. His message is bearing fruit 
in the hearts of many men whom 
the-necessary-to-define- your- mental -at- 
titude school would rule out of the 
kingdom. Even Elijah made a mis- 
take in the matter of how many ser- 
vants God had. 

Usefulness the Supreme Test 

These divisions of the Church mean 
to me cargo vessels, and if for any rea- 
son they can't carry, they should go 
[191 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

out of commission. If one is beyond 
repair or the type has been superseded, 
it should go out permanently. We con- 
tinue to run old three-deckers for fight- 
ing battles, or Columbian caravels for 
freighting purposes. It appears to some 
to cause a temporary setback to fight- 
ing efficiency to send a once serviceable 
ship to the scrap heap, but it is the best 
and cheapest in the end. In the North 
Sea fishery I saw hundreds of sailing 
craft that had helped to make fortunes, 
that had kept the markets full, and that 
still had years of life, laid up, and then 
sold practically for old junk. Why.'^ 
Simply because swift steam-trawlers had 
been found to do the work better. 

These sub-organizations, as far as I 
am concerned, are existing merely to 
help men to work in the spiritual field. 
They are not like some yachts, just to 
carry bunting and paint to be admired. 
As for church affihation, what I like to 
see is a hungry man going where he 
will be fed and get strength. I trust 
it does not seem ffippant to say that I 
look on all church organizations in the 
same way, and that the tradition of a 
[20] 



MEANS TO ME 

long past suggests to me the ineflSciency 
of a dotage, quite as much as the stim- 
ulating aroma of potency which, as 
in the case of some wines, can only be 
acquired by the lapse of time. Some 
will say that this Modernism has no 
sense of obligation, no sense of venera- 
tion, makes no allowance for the idio- 
syncrasies of others. Well, that may 
be so. I may plead, on the contrary, 
that what we call the ancient Church 
was the youthful Church. The Church 
of the twentieth century is the ancient, 
grown-up Church. 

The Building Itself, Pro and Con 

Experience has convinced me that 
bricks and mortar and sectarian loy- 
alty have more often been hindrances 
than helps to that expression of faith in 
him which Jesus looks for in our lives. 
I admit I have not lived long enough 
in one place fully to appreciate the pos- 
sibilities for stimulus and help this 
tying up into bundles can afford. On 
the other hand, I feel so certain that 
buildings set aside for public worship 
are essential in every place, that where 
[21] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

none exists I feel wretched, and I have 
shares in quite a number all along our 
Labrador coast. 

I love to wander through an ancient 
edifice in which generations of men have 
come and worshiped and found help 
and comfort. I like looking at the 
Viking ship, but I don't want to cross 
the Atlantic in it. Personally, I like to 
hear, to see, and to understand. The 
dim religious light and sonorous sounds 
do not waken me to a keener sense of 
the call of God to be up and doing. 
They just make me sleepy. Besides 
being difficult as a rule to hear, there is 
too much around to distract my atten- 
tion. I don't think Westminster Abbey 
helps me personally to attend to the 
service. On the contrary, I think it 
makes me think of the building. I 
used somehow to imagine that service 
in the open air was necessarily asso- 
ciated with cant. Now I like it far 
the best. Not merely because it is 
more sanitary — till some one learns 
how to ventilate a building decently 
— but because it absolutely forces you 
to feel insignificant, and anxious that 
[22] 



MEANS TO ME 

the great Creator should condescend to 
care about a mosquito Hke you. More- 
over, I have often noticed out in the 
open a unit^ between those of different 
sects that was perfectly delightful. 
Meanwhile I am not unmindful that in 
many, if not in all, a deep inborn spir- 
itual craving, no child of philosophy, is 
a powerful factor in helping men God- 
ward. Also that many find their only 
help in authority and the faith of others. 
All these the Church has to provide for. 
It] is no easy task to be prophet and 
conservative custodian at the same 
time. 

The New and Better Spirit 

One great trouble with tying one's 
self to any one church, from my peri- 
patetic point of view, has always been 
the fact that so many other churches 
say, "If you are not one of us, you are 
against us." It is almost too personal 
to illustrate this from my own somewhat 
sad experience in my early days, but 
every worker in wide fields must have 
felt it. Jesus had specially to rebuke 
his own disciples for forbidding any 
[23] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

man from casting out devils. For 
whatever his opinions, he must be on 
our side. 

Thank God there is a new spirit 
entering the churches, a larger spirit! 
Only those can survive eventually who 
cultivate it. A spirit that wants to 
use every effort to raise humanity, and 
seeks a return for its outstretched hand, 
solely in the fact that it thereby grasps 
more of those of "his brethren." 

The Only Right Way to Grow 

This is the way for a church to grow. 
The more it exercises its muscles in 
pulling men out of their pits, the more 
dexterous, powerful, and altogether de- 
sirable it will be, because the world will 
need it, and it will no longer appeal 
only to those who prefer its form of 
worship or have a bias towards its 
particular church polity. The law of 
demand and supply should be recog- 
nized as applying equally to the church 
as to other agencies. The desire to be 
needed, to find work, and not merely 
to be a big party product can alone 
develop communions able to remove 
[24] 



MEANS TO ME 

the stigma of being either parasites 
or fads. 

If a church is really anxious to fulfil 
its functions as set down in the only 
book of instructions for each of them; 
if it wants to call forth latent energy, 
as a Washington from his homestead, 
or a Lincoln from his farm, it must 
cease to lay stress on orthodoxy and 
get to work where the world really 
needs it. A surgeon may be ever so 
correct in his knowledge of operative 
surgery, but he must find a practise 
or he is useless. It is not so much for 
holding services, as for rendering ser- 
vices, that the world is looking to the 
Church today. 

Human Need the True Objective 

Today the Church should not only 
have a message for the strong and well. 
In Christ's day it had a message for 
the sick and suffering also. I admit 
that the medical profession has neg- 
lected too much the influence that mind 
has over matter. It therefore frequently 
endeavors to treat a human being as 
if he was nothing but a conglomeration 
[25] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

of material cells. But the Church, it 
seems to me, is making an infinitely 
more serious mistake in entirely aban- 
doning the valuable aid it can give the 
physician when he has found that no 
organic cause accounts for the symp- 
toms of his patient. What is known in 
America as the Emmanuel Movement 
has my entire sympathy. It is an 
honest effort of sane men to bring to 
the aid of physical sufferers demon- 
stratively valuable spiritual influences. 

The Minister only a Servant 

The priest or minister is the navigat- 
ing lieutenant of the Church ship. He 
is the tactician of the army. He is the 
specialist whose experience is invalu- 
able. He is not called to be one whit 
holier than I am, but being on a lofty 
pedestal he will possibly be more closely 
watched. His, indeed, is a pitiable con- 
dition if he has not the spirit of his 
Master. His creed may seem infal- 
lible, his faith most orthodox, but for 
my part I would rather not be so sure 
of what I did believe, and pray with 
"the man after God's own heart," 
[26] 



MEANS TO ME 

"Teach me to do the thing which pleases 
thee." This is a sure step on the road 
to the answer of, ''Lord, I beheve, help 
thou mine unbelief." I am convinced 
there would be no lack of worthy can- 
didates for the ministry if only the 
churches would lay more stress on the 
infinite privilege of human service it 
opens up. There are more medical 
students than are needed. 

The Futility of the Intellectual 
Test 

Is it then a necessity, or an advis- 
able thing, that before a man can be- 
come a worker with the Church he must 
pass an intellectual test? Is it impera- 
tive for him to find exactly what he 
does not believe? That makes it almost 
impossible for him to get back after- 
wards. The effect on the unfortunate 
heathen of warring messengers, all call- 
ing for different faith tests for member- 
ship in Christ's Church, has always 
seemed to me little short of disastrous. 
The theory of Christianity wouldn't 
convince the heathen of the Congo 
[27] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

that religion is desirable, or make a 
Russian Jew wish to adopt Russian 
Christianity. The same applies to the 
Turkish \4ews of Austrian Christianity, 
or the attitude of the Indian of South 
Aonerica towards Christian Spain. As 
for me, I am satisfied in my own work, 
and I think my Master was, with the 
faith that makes a man anxious and 
willing to come and help me, ever be- 
lie\Tng that he that is not against us 
is on our side. 

Joshua, a sen^ant of God if ever there 
was one, is often quoted as saj^ng, 
"Decide,'' "Choose." We must re- 
member that what he said was, "Choose 
whom you will serve,'' not what your 
final belief is going to be. Christ never 
sought for admirers, but for followers. 
The most voluble protestants of their 
faith in Jesus as God's Son were de\'ils. 
They knew it, but benefited httle by 
it. Thank God, Jesus never made 
the opposite of confessing our behef in 
him before men to be the non-apprehen- 
sion of his di\Tnity, but always the 
denying and being ashamed of his ser- 
xice and becoming a stumbling block. 
[28] 



MEANS TO ME 

Though I know what a wonderful thing 
it is, as a source of power, to be able to 
confess our faith in Jesus as the Son of 
God, and what infinite peace it affords 
to have that confirmed by experience. 

The shrewd judgment of Wall Street 
would not lend a man ten cents because 
he had been accepted as a member of 
a church on confession of faith. Often 
enough members of the same church 
wouldn't either, although they probably 
both would to a doer, like Living- 
stone. So let us abandon the creed- 
judging of others. Jesus accepted the 
following of the adulterers, publicans, 
and the harlots, and the man who has 
honest doubts may be a Christ follower 
or a Christian, who ever says the 
contrary. 

Banded together for jVL\nly 
Service 

I have always loved to think of Jesus 
Christ and to commend him as Master 
because he accepted all who came — 
whether for comfort, for help, or for 
ser\ace. TVTien a man sets to work on 
[29] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

the road that leads to heaven here, he 
will be tasting the sweetness of the 
believing that involves everlasting life. 
In our Labrador work we form no 
church. Our fellow- workers pray and 
worship in every denomination as the 
bias of their mind and temperament 
leads them to find peace and comfort 
and strength best. Yet we are a defi- 
nite body associated together for certain 
purposes. These we believe are trans- 
lations into action of our interpreta- 
tion of our debt to God and to our 
neighbor. In that sense are we not a 
true ecclesia.f^ 

Will it horrify my readers if I confess 
I have accepted doctors for our hos- 
pitals, nurses for our districts, and 
workers of every type, and yet have 
never known which way they prefer 
to worship? Nor have I ever played the 
censor on their right to help us by defin- 
ing what they ought to believe before 
I allowed them to set to work. Before 
a member joins the permanent staff 
we must know he is in absolute sym- 
pathy with our aim to glorify God and 
serve our brother, and that he or she 
[30] 



MEANS TO ME 

is willing to give their best for that 
object. But that is all. I am fear- 
less to confess that I would enroll 
for a colleague in the clinics, which 
hold in their hands the lives of my 
friends, a man who is facile princeps 
in the art of surgery rather than a 
second-rate surgeon who can subscribe 
to the very same intellectual tenets as 
I do myself. 

Our claim to be capable servants of our 
Master and reincarnations of his life 
is judged in our little world by the good 
work we do; if as surgeons or nurses, 
by our skill; if as storekeepers and labor 
employers, by the clean deals we give. 
If we are second-rate in our work all 
our talking won't persuade men of our 
fitness for our position. Securus judi- 
cat orhis terrarum — and to my mind 
God seeks first men diligent in business, 
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. 

All the sects have only the same work 
for the same Master to accomplish; it 
is through being fellow-workers and not 
identical thinkers that love for all who 
love Christ must come. This is unity. 
The camaraderie of a fighting force is 
[31] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

not disturbed by the feeling that one is 
of the cavalry, another of the infantry, 
a third of the artillery; or even, as has 
often been shown in warfare, whether 
they are of different races, climes, or 
temperaments. There is nothing like 
common work to beget intelligent love 
for your fellow. 

How did Christ admit his members? 
By their profession of faith? I think 
not. By their readiness to work? Yes. 
Those were workers he chose, every 
one of them. Did he wait until they 
could say they believed, even that he 
was God's Son, before he sent them out 
to work? Not at all. He said if you 
are willing to go out and work you will 
get faith by working and seeing others 
work. 

In this way most men get faith now. 
The empirical method is the very best 
way to get it firmly rooted. Experi- 
entia docet "Now we believe, not 
because of what you say, but because 
we have seen for ourselves." Did not 
Judas work with Jesus? Yet it is ab- 
surd to contend that Jesus was ''un- 
equally yoked with unbelievers" on 
[32] 



MEANS TO ME 

that account. At the end of Christ's 
life only Peter seemed even to guess 
who he was, and his protestations 
were not even the asset he thought 
they were. For a few minutes after 
he had openly, to Christ's face and 
before witnesses, asserted his faith, 
Christ called him "Satan" and told 
him to get behind him. When he was 
in trouble they every one ran away. 
They would never have done that 
from a handful of soldiers if they had 
honestly believed he was the very Son 
of God. 

To sum up, What has the Church 
meant to me.^ It has meant the agency 
through which I received such spiritual 
sight as I have. It has meant the body 
through which has come to me strength 
in weakness many times, comfort in 
trial, help in time of need. Through the 
Church of God, which Phillips Brooks 
said is "the kingdom of good hearts 
united in love," have come the talents 
to use in the work to which my life is 
given. When I want more help it is 
to this wide Church I go to look for 
it, and I have never looked in vain. 
[33] 



WHAT THE CHURCH 

As a man loves the members of his 
family, so I love the Church of God. 
For resources it stands to me as a per- 
manent war office stands to an army 
in the field. Fine uniforms and titles 
are of little moment as compared with 
wisdom and efficiency for supplying 
men and sinews for war. We fully 
value the great leaders in our home 
country, and we also love our *'Bobs" 
or our ''Wellington" because when 
called on they are milling to march in 
the front rank themselves. 

As a peripatetic worker myself dur- 
ing open water in my little hospital ship, 
and in winter with dogs and sleigh, I 
recognize that it is but transient help 
which I can give alone. So I love the 
little hospitals, which speak of perma- 
nence. When a call for help comes for 
me, often enough my place is vacant. 
But the cheery haven of refuge is always 
there. 

The grip of fellowship the visible 
churches give us on our homeland visits 
is a real factor in our work. It makes 
them real sharers in it. And I thank 
God for the real Church of God. I 
[34] 



MEANS TO ME 

realize as never before how essential 
that is. Besides all this, she stands as 
a great reminder of God to the world. 
"Lest we forget. Lest we forget." 

My last is purely a private confession, 
and it is this: If it were only through 
association, I love also that organiza- 
tion within God's Church of which I 
am myself a humble member. It is 
because I love it I am willing to write 
exactly as I feel. For I love it enough 
to wish with all my heart and soul and 
strength that God might be able to 
use it to a fuller capacity, as with open 
eyes and unprejudiced heart and with 
wisdom developing by experience it 
becomes willing to see that it also must 
have its scrap heap, or its museum for 
honorable antiquities, on which to lay 
aside the weights that are impeding 
it in the race, which are crippling its 
usefulness, and which are bound even- 
tually to destroy it if it blindly con- 
tinues to cling to them. 

The qualification for life eternal is 

to have done well. The final test is to 

be ethical, not theological. I expect to 

find more roads leading into the Golden 

[35] 



WHAT THE CHURCH , 

City than many seem even to wish for. 
After the school day of Hfe I look for 
an ecclesia, a mighty host, called out 
for more perfect service. My ideal 
church is characterized solely by the 
very simplest interpretation of the old, 
old story, and each member deserves 
the name of the "friend of all the 
world." 



[36] 



OCT 9 '1911 



WHAT HAS THE CHURCH 
MEANT TO ME? IT HAS 
MEANT THE AGENCY 
THROUGH WHICH I RE- 
CEIVED SUCH SPIRIT- 
UAL SIGHT AS I HAVE • IT 
HAS MEANT THE BODY 
THROUGH WHICH HAS 
COME TO ME STRENGTH 
IN WEAKNESS MANY 
TIMES, COMFORT IN TRIAL, 
HELP IN TIME OF NEED 



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MY IDEAL CHURCH IS 
CHARACTERIZED SOLELY 
BY THE VERY SIMPLEST IN- 
TERPRETATION OF THE 
OLD, OLD STORY, AND EACH 
MEMBER DESERVES THE 
NAME OF THE "FRIEND 
OF ALL THE WORLD" 



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